Ink and Paper
by ladyinthetrees
Summary: Meggie soon finds out that Silvertongues even live in the worlds bound in the pages of the books she loves so dearly. When a literary character reads herself out of a book, she will do anything to get back inside. Even if that means reading out others.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is just a tester of an idea I had stewing around in my brain for a while. It's meant to take place after the events in 'Inkheart' and before 'Inkspell.' If you like it, come on and review it. It only takes a second, and wouldn't you like to make my day?

'Suddenly The Hispaniola came right into the wind. The jibs behind me cracked aloud, the rudder slammed to, the whole ship gave a sickening heave and shudder, and at the same moment the main-boom swung inboard, the sheet groaning in the blocks and showed me the lee after-deck.'

Meggie suddenly stopped reading and stuck her nose up into the air to smell.

"Saltwater."

Even if she wasn't reading out loud, the books still seemed to burst off of the pages, making the world dizzy around her. Just mouthing the words with her lips had already filled her pillowcase with fine, white sand and every so often, her concentration would be interrupted by the shrill cry of a seagull.

She threw her copy of "Treasure Island" on her nightstand before other parts of the book suddenly fell into her bedroom. That was one thing she absolutely did not need tonight. Pirates.

She took a deep breath and tucked her hands behind her head as she gazed up at the ceiling.

She didn't need to look at the clock to know it was extremely late, but for some reason her eyes refused to shut themselves up for the night. For the past few nights, it had been nearly impossible for her to fall asleep, the memories of recent events always coming back to her, leaving her alert and wide awake.

Several images began to flow through her mind in the darkness, lulling her into a soft calm.

Resa and Mo at the breakfast table, laughing away as they each fought for the last blueberry muffin.

Elinor sitting quietly in her garden, reading her newly bought books to the trolls as they dug their caves carefully among the elm trees. Farid kissing her hand tenderly before heading off into the darkness with Dustfinger, Gwin tucked comfortably in his rucksack.

Meggie opened her eyes at the thought of Farid. She hadn't seen him for months now.

Her heart began to beat faster as she imagined his smiling amber eyes, as bright as the fire he had desperately tried to conjure between his fingers, just like Dustfinger. She would never admit to Mo or Resa that she missed him, but silently her heart seemed to ache to be near him, to feel the warmth of his hands caressing her own.

A tiny tap on the window pane shook her out of her reverie. Meggie glanced over and could see a small, twinkling orb knocking itself gently against the glass, its green glow pulsating in the darkness.

Silently, Meggie slid out of bed and over to the window, her feet tiptoeing along slowly. It was not uncommon for the fairies that lived in Elinor's garden to occasionally try to find their way indoors, especially on colder nights when they could curl up on the rafters near the fireplace to warm their tiny feet and hands.

Meggie slowly pushed the pane up to let the fairy in and closed it shut once it had found its way in.

But unlike the other fairies, this one seemed in great distress, its wings fluttering hurriedly from corner to corner, a soft but persistent tinkling sound emanating from it as it flew.

"What's the matter?" Meggie whispered to the fairy, rushing up to it with her hands outstretched to catch her. This seemed to anger the fairy even more and it begun spinning around the room with great speed, its green light surging.

"Calm down!" Meggie pleaded, wondering whether she should just open the window and let it fly back out again. The fairy continued on, however.

For a moment, the fairy landed on the mantle of the fireplace, trying to catch its breath, and Meggie could get a closer look at her intruder. She was a beautiful little thing, with fierce green eyes and ruffled brown hair cropped close to her head. Her skin was a light tan, completely different to the other fairies which had escaped from the Inkworld, and long, slender wings which seemed to glisten even in the dim light.

Meggie managed to inch up closer to the unknown fairy while she panted heavily on the fireplace.

"Who are you?"

In a flash, the fairy had sprung back up from where she was sitting and jetted over to Meggie.

The fairy had landed in Meggie's hair and began tugging at it furiously, causing Meggie to gasp in alarm.

She clasped her hand to her mouth, trying with all her might not to scream out, waking up the entire household. Meggie hurried to her bed and grabbed ahold of her pillow and tugged off the pillowcase.

Pain was now coming in waves across her whole head. The fairy was determined not to let go.

Meggie slipped the pillowcase over the top of her head and began to shake furiously, causing the fairy to drop her locks of hair and fly into the sack. As soon as she was sure the fairy was off of her, she quickly flipped the pillowcase off of her head and twisted it at the end to secure it.

After a brief moment, violent rings began to emanate out of the pillowcase, signaling her displeasure of being locked up in her cloth prison.

Meggie fastened the end of the pillowcase with an elastic hair tie and set her down gently on the bed.

This was definitely not any type of fairy from the Inkworld, with their silly games and their amiable ways. They wouldn't fight when Meggie ran across the dew-soaked grass, her arms open wide to catch them. They would land on her face as she lay laughing on the lawn and dance around on her cheeks.

Meggie rushed to the window and looked out onto the moonlit lawn below. Below her, the wide lake lay like a piece of glass, its dark emptiness mirroring the shadow of the sky above it.

All around her was silence, even the wind didn't dare disturb the trees in their slumber.

The other fairies had tucked themselves away into the little homes Elinor had fashioned for them atop the tree branches and the trolls were lying lazily upon the tops of the wild mushrooms growing about the yard.

So where did this little fairy come from? It's like she appeared out of thin air.

Meggie's eyes widened. She had appeared out of thin air.

She hurried back to her bed, where she had placed the pillowcase and slowly began to untie the top.

"If I let you out," Meggie muttered, "you have to promise to behave, alright?"

The question was met by silence. After a few moments, Meggie heard a faint tinkling in agreement.

She opened the top of the pillowcase and waited.

Soon, a small face poked its way out of the sack, her eyes wide with confusion and astonishment.

With each step, a tiny amount of what seemed to be dust shook its way off of her and landed near her feet, making the pillowcase sparkle around her.

Meggie's eyes grew wide and her tongue seemed heavy in her mouth as she tried to whisper out the tiny fairy's name. "Tinkerbell."

At this, the little fairy chimed in acknowledgment and lifted herself off of the bed.

She hovered around the room, taking in the surroundings before landing gracefully on a small bookshelf above Meggie's desk. Meggie merely gazed in astonishment as the fairy crossed her hands behind her back and began examining the book's spines, absorbed, as if she had completely forgotten the past few minutes.

They were so forgetful. Their tiny minds could only hold one emotion at a time and then only for a few moments before going off to explore something new.

"Tinkerbell, how on earth did you get here?" Meggie mumbled, searching around the room for any sign of her hardback copy of "Peter Pan". She found it sitting on its usual place in the shelf, untouched.

Tinkerbell merely raised her arms in uncertainty and resumed her studying of titles along the book's spines.

"Alright," Meggie sighed, grasping an open hand towards the door. "I'm going to check in on something, so stay here."

But Tinkerbell had already forgotten about her and had begun to pull open Meggie's desk drawers, intent on finding something of interest to her.

Meggie snapped the door closed behind her and hurried down the hallway, her socked feet hardly making a scuffle on the bare floors. She squeezed her way through the house, occasionally having to shimmy her way through great piles of books, stacked so high that they were nearly as tall as her.

Elinor had been collecting them at an astounding rate, in a desperate attempt to replace the ones she had lost when Basta and his men had set fire to her library. She would often be out for days at a time trying to find lost favorites to fill her empty shelves.

She stopped in her tracks when the hallway branched off into two directions. One led to Mo and Resa's room, the other to Darius'. Meggie passed her hand over her face in contemplation.

Who should she tell about this? Mo wouldn't believe her when she told him that the fairy had appeared out of nowhere, with no one responsible. Not at first, anyway.

Darius would be more understanding. She took a deep breath and rushed through the dark hallway to her left, to Darius. She knocked lightly on the heavy oak door in three short, blunt strokes.

After a few moments of waiting, a soft click sounded in the empty hallway and Darius' thin face peeked its way out in surprise.

"Mmmmeggie, what's the matter?"

Meggie itched the back of her head nervously before pushing her way inside the room.

"We have a problem."


	2. Chapter 2

"Meggie, wwwwhat you are saying..." Darius hesitated as he squeezed himself through two pillars of yellowed books. "what you're saying is im...impossible."

Meggie took a deep breath. She knew she was troubling Darius whenever his stammer would sneak itself out and tie his tongue into a sharp knot. He would be no good to her if he couldn't speak properly.

"Darius, calm yourself. You're stuttering again."

"S..sorry Meg...Meggie." He halted in the corridor for a moment to remove his wire-rimmed spectacles.

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose tightly, humming gently to himself to relax.

Resa had taught him this method in order to calm himself during times of stress. Several times a day, Meggie would see him standing in various rooms of the house, completely still, murmuring to himself and rubbing his forehead in meditation.

"Meggie," he began again, replacing his glasses, "If you, me or Mo didn't read her out of the book, then who did?"

Meggie laced her fingers around the door handle leading into her bedroom and carefully pushed it open.

"That's exactly what we're going to try to ask her."

Meggie and Darius searched around the room carefully, tiptoeing in case the little fairy happened to be underfoot. They shook out several pairs of Meggie's shoes and looked in every drawer to make sure she hadn't gotten herself stuck.

"I...I don't see her anywhere, Meggie." Darius mumbled, scratching the back of his head.

"Are you sure she was Tinkerbell and not just a fairy from the garden?"

Meggie nodded her head vigorously and continued moving items from under the bed.

"I'm positive. She even responded to the name."

With a heavy sigh, Meggie gave up searching and plopped down onto the bed angrily.

"I could have sworn I saw her." she whispered, resting her hand on her sore scalp.

At that moment, a brilliant green light shot out of an unnoticed hole near the doorframe and landed, once more, on the fireplace mantle, tinkling to itself loudly.

Without a word, Darius stumbled over to the excited fairy and slowly held out his hand.

Tinkerbell had extracted a tiny comb from the satchel dangling from her belt and had begun to delicately comb her hair. She glanced up at Darius for only a moment before turning back around again.

He let out a stifled laugh.

"Why, it is her! I'd recognize that amiability anywhere."

Meggie shot up from her bed and walked over to Darius and the little fairy.

"So how did she get here?" she asked hurriedly, peering over Darius' shoulder to get a better look at her.

"I don't know." he returned once more reaching out his hand.

Seeing Darius' enormous fingers out of the corner of her eye, Tinkerbell shot around quickly and poked him hard in the thumb with the teeth on her comb.

"Ouch!"

Meggie let out a giggle and Tinkerbell went back to her grooming.

"Well, why don't you ask her some questions?" Darius asked, sticking his thumb into his mouth.

Meggie kept her eyes positioned on the pixie as she placed her comb back into her bag and began walking further down the mantle.

"Oh, it wouldn't make much of a difference. I can't speak fairy. If only Peter were here."

The instant Meggie uttered the name, Tinkerbell shot back in front of her, her eyes wide with curiosity.

"What? Peter?"

The pixie nodded hurriedly, accidently lifting herself up into the air.

"Do you know where Peter is, Tink?" Meggie asked slowly, placing her hand up underneath the fairy.

Tinkerbell landed in the palm of Meggie's hand and marched around in a circle with her hand up over her eyes, as if she were searching for something.

"She's looking for Peter." Meggie said to Darius.

Meggie hurried over to the bookcase and grabbed ahold of her copy of 'Peter Pan'.

She flipped through the worn pages until she reached the picture she was looking for.

Meggie set down the book as Tinkerbell traced the ink lines of Peter's face with her fingers carefully.

She knew the face perfectly, each contour and laugh line, with more detail than the book could ever give.

"How did you get here?" Meggie whispered to the fairy, but all of her concentration remained on the illustration of her best friend.

"I just don't understand it." said Darius, reaching his hands into his pockets.

"She's oblivious as to what happened."

He looked over at Meggie but her eyes were no longer positioned on the small fairy but on the ceiling directly overhead.

"Meggie, what is it?" he began, his eyes shooting back and forth from her to the ceiling.

"Shhh!" she spat, raising her finger to her mouth. "Don't you hear it?"

After a few moments of silence, Darius could hear something and began to shuffle over to where Meggie sat.

"I...ttthink I should get Mo."

"No! Wait. Listen."

It began softly. A far off thundering sound, almost like waves crashing against a rock. The smell of water again, just like when she had been reading 'Treasure Island.' But these were two different smells.

The smell of the sea in 'Treasure Island' had been sharp and salty. This new aroma was something she had never smelled before. The smell of salt, and then a sweetness like a flower. And then another, a burst of vanilla.

The crashing was getting louder, and soon Meggie could also hear the distant sound of pipes echoing.

It had attracted the attention of Tinkerbell as well and she searched around the room excitedly.

Soon, a cacophony of sounds blazed around Meggie's ears.

The caw of a bird, the beating of drums, several shrieks of children's laughter, the ticking of a clock.

A sudden wind had picked up, causing Meggie to lose her balance. She hobbled over to her bedpost and grabbed a tight hold. Darius was soon behind her, and grabbed onto the post as well.

The wind continued until Meggie's cheeks began to sting.

"LOOK!" Darius shouted, pointing to a corner of her room.

Meggie turned her head against the wind and spotted a small wigwam holding itself up steadily.

She continued searching around her room and through the gale could make out several items that had not been there earlier, including a few rusted pots and pans, an umbrella, a small sword and a pirate flag.

Suddenly, a huge lump broke through the ceiling and dropped down hard onto Meggie's bed.

As soon as it hit the bed, the wind stopped and everything became instantly quiet again.

Both afraid to move, Darius and Meggie remained where they were, attached to the bed.

Then, after a minute or two, Meggie slowly untangled her fingers from each other and walked over to the lump that had plummeted into her bed sheets.

"What is it?" Darius whispered, his knees knocking together.

Meggie let out a small gasp as she glanced down at the lump.

"It's a girl."

"What kind of a gggirl?"

Meggie's eyes shot up at Darius with a look of derision. "A girl girl, Darius."

After a moment, the girl began to move slowly and then finally pricked her head up.

Soft brown hair tumbled delicately over faint pink cheeks and sharp blue eyes stared back in a stunned glare. The girl was dressed only in a light blue cotton nightgown and a neat little bow in her hair.

Meggie looked down upon her arms wide-eyed.

They were covered in an ink-black script, reaching from her wrists to her elbow and other random spots.

Hurriedly, Meggie read some of the words printed across the girl's pale white skin.

"There could not have been a lovelier sight; but there was none to see it except a little boy who was staring in at the window."

"Peter Pan." Meggie whispered.

Then, the girl shot up and bounded out of the tangled sheets, grabbing a quick hold on the small sword Meggie had seen earlier.

Both Meggie and Darius instantly raised their hands in surrender while the girl straightened out her nightdress and tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear.

"Who are you?" the girl questioned, darting the sword from person to person.

"I'm Meggie Folchart and this is Darius."

Darius gave a swift wave before thrusting his hands back up into the air.

"Where am I?" the girl chirped, switching the sword into her other hand. She couldn't have been more than Meggie's age and a steel blade like that would weigh quite a bit.

"You're in my bedroom."

The girl seemed pleased enough with this simple answer and began to look around the room.

Meggie slowly lowered her hands and asked the girl a question.

"What is your name?"

As if a switch had been flipped, the girl lowered the sword and curtsied low.

"My name is Wendy Moira Angela Darling."


End file.
